Amrita students from Cybersecurity Systems & Networks Center participated in the world’s biggest student cybersecurity contests during New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering’s annual Cyber Security Awareness Week (NYU CSAW) games. The hacking skills contest, called Capture the Flag (CTF), is the signature event of NYU CSAW, which this year drew 2,454 teams from 92 countries for online preliminaries. The teams included professional teams, as well as those from universities. Amrita’s overall performance was ranked 56^th amongst 2400+ teams. Among teams only from Universities, Amrita Cybersecurity students rank was 32^nd. This was a very impressive achievement as Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham was one of the youngest universities represented and the competition was fierce. 

Capture the Flag events are essential training competitions for students interested in cybersecurity careers. As competitors advance through the challenges, they earn points, or “flags” to try to win the contest.  Designed to test a range of both offensive and defensive skills, including vulnerability testing, exploit discovery, and reverse engineering, CTFs are widely used to train both students and security industry professionals.  

Interest in CTF events has skyrocketed in recent years, as more students are exploring careers in cybersecurity- one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative fields in the sciences, due in large part to high demand and a low supply of highly trained workers.  In fact, in 2015, an Amrita alumnus from Cybersecurity and Networks earned a package of almost one crore in a major international company. Amrita is pioneering a unique pedagogic approach to teaching their M.Tech in Cybersecurity by blending theoretical and practical training as part of the curriculum, which has been instrumental in the outstanding achievements of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham students.